


record that!

by hwnghynjn



Series: who do you think you're selling your drugs to? [3]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Jicheol, M/M, Thank You!, a bit of a slow burn, but i'll write jicheol for this series because i felt like it suited the title i had, i love them honestly what a guilty pleasure, jihoon has dark red hair in this, just a bit, love yall, mentions of drinking i guess?, ok so it took me awhile to decide, passing soonhoon but only a mention, slightly mildly angsty, tw: jihoon has a bit of a breakdown but it's not vivid at all i promise, very pure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 17:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12281553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwnghynjn/pseuds/hwnghynjn
Summary: seungcheol had heard the name "lee jihoon, music genius" spoken all over campus, and when he finally meets him he gets nothing less- and much more.





	record that!

**Author's Note:**

> ugh what are summaries?? please enjoy this

seungcheol had heard the name "lee jihoon" uttered many times-from the mouths of freshmen in music production, in hushed, awed tones; in conversations between the dance majors; from his fellow students in musical composition- but he's never actually seen the man.

he's also heard news on how "lee jihoon" does not look like how you'd expect him to look. some of his friends joke around on how teasing jihoon on his height might earn you a broken arm.

despite the buzz over jihoon's musical talent, he's never had a reason to speak to him, until it was his second-year anniversary with his girlfriend, and he decided to make a song for her. soojung hadn't asked for much, but he'd been planning this since they met, at a boring lecture about something he doesn't even remember.

so after his classes one day, he calls up one of his friends who recognizes jihoon and asks to meet him.

"hey, soonyoung, you know the musical genius guy, right?"

there was a tiny crackle as soonyoung paused. "yeah, i know jihoon. why?"

"uh, i want to make a song for soojung for our second anniversary, and i wanted to ask for his help."

"ah, yeah, sure. he's actually free right now, in the studio on the third floor in the music block."

so that's where he heads, the lyrics he'd scribbled out on notebook paper clutched in his right hand.

-

when seungcheol gets to the recording studio, he hears a male voice- precise, sweet, a classic voice- and yet he's not quite sure that he's ever heard something like that.

he stops outside the door, waiting for the other to finish recording, enjoying how the melody of the vocals wraps the backing instrumentals gently in a blanket of lilting tones and perfect harmony.

when the voice stops and the instrumentals fade out, seungcheol waits ten seconds before knocking on the door.

there's a squeak of an office chair, and a voice calls out. "come in."

when he goes in, he sees someone he assumes is the famous lee jihoon. dark red hair, a cap shoved on backwards, slanted eyes. 

seungcheol doesn't really know why the first thing his mind registers is "adorable", but there's also an aura around the guy that suggests how much pain he'll be in if he dared to voice it out loud.

instead he waves. "hey, i'm choi seungcheol from musical composition?" he holds up the lyrics in his hand. "i kinda need help with a song."

jihoon looks at him, glances at the paper in the other's hand, looks back at seungcheol. the atmosphere is growing mildly unsettling and a tad bit awkward when jihoon nods.

"hand me those lyrics?" he asks. "and close the door behind you."

seungcheol does so, and sits across from the smaller in a stool opposite him.

jihoon reads the lyrics, pausing at certain bits and skimming through some once or twice. he hums and lifts his head from the paper. "this for your girlfriend?"

"yeah. our second year anniversary."

jihoon tilts his head, a sort of smirk appearing on his thin lips. "impressive."

seungcheol doesn't really know what to say to that, so he starts to talk about what kind of genre he's prefer, his vague view of how he wants it to turn out. probably some kind of chill vibe, r&b, a bit of chill hop to tie in with the short rap verse included in the song. soojung likes that kind of music, but she doesn't like songs with a whole lot of instrumentals, and she enjoys digging out the background vocals, so maybe-

jihoon cuts him off with an amused and mildly gruff "hey, calm down." he gestures at the paper. "we'll work on editing the lyrics a bit first while finding the general melody for this, then we'll try out the whole thing. how long do you have?"

"uh, around three weeks?"

jihoon nods. "that's more than enough. in the meantime, i'm hungry, and i'll be here until like, 1 a.m, so i'll be going for lunch first. catch ya later."

he walks out of the studio while he calls out to a bewildered seungcheol. "off the lights when you leave!"

-

over the next few days, seungcheol works with jihoon over the song. they've finalized the lyrics and jihoon helped to spin out a nice, suitable piano backing as the base for the melody, as their foundation to work on, which he claims he'd thought of in half an hour, in a caffeine-induced frenzy at 3 in the morning.

they've gotten slightly closer. seungcheol has discovered that jihoon is someone pretty reserved at first glance, but once you start getting to know him, he's sharp, quick-witted, and pretty straightforward- a nice breath of fresh air for seungcheol, who's spent too much time with people who work around their true intentions and disguise their real feelings in flattery like bad stage makeup.

he's also discovered that jihoon pretty much lives in the recording studio. when he does go out, it's to buy food and maybe sleep, although he's caught the smaller asleep in his office chair, his face pressed against the papers on his table. when that happens, seungcheol sits in the corner next to jihoon, quietly working on the notes and melody until he wakes up.

he also has a schedule of drinks to bring jihoon when he does go to the studio. in the mornings, a shot of espresso; in the afternoons it's cappucino if he'd had a nap, chai tea if he was awake, and at night, canned coffee. since he stops off at the cafe before coming to classes anyway, he treats it as payment for jihoon's help in finishing the song.

a week and a half after they've started, seungcheol walks into the studio to find jihoon spread out on the floor, his papers in a mess- crumpled and thrown onto the table, his pen uncapped and under the chair, cans of coffee all over the floor to avoid anything happening to the expensive recording equipment.

"i'm done." jihoon says, and seungcheol closes the door behind him before sitting with his legs stretched in front of him next to jihoon. the younger's eyes are bloodshot and slightly puffy and red around the edges. seungcheol sets down the coffee and his papers.

"what happened?" he asks. jihoon lifts his hands to rub his eyes ferociously.

"nothing. everything. i don't understand-"

"don't understand what?"

jihoon pauses and sniffles. 

"i don't know how to explain it. it's like-" he pauses. "like i'm doing so much, but it's heading nowhere. it feels like i'm on a fucking treadmill and i'm not moving from where i am. it's fucking annoying. i swear-"

"calm down." seungcheol says, and jihoon stops, breathing heavily.

"come on." seungcheol tentatively reaches out and pats jihoon's head. it's a rash move that might cost him his hand, but thank his lucky stars, all jihoon does is stiffen and then slowly relaxes into the touch.

"whatever stress you're feeling right now, it's not worth it. your work is obviously making a difference- hey, soonyoung wouldn't have passed his dance final without your help with his track, remember? you've composed, written and produced, like, more than a hundred songs. half of the school's musicals and recitals wouldn't be possible without your songs."

jihoon is silent, and seungcheol feels as if his talk was mildly parental and extremely cliche, but jihoon takes a deep breath and lifts himself up- and abruptly rests his head on seungcheol's lap.

"don't move. i'm tired." jihoon says, and closes his eyes. 

seungcheol picks up his papers and coffee and works on the song more as jihoon dozes off against his leg.

in his sleep, jihoon looks relaxed and soft, almost like a napping child, and seungcheol feels relieved that he'd managed to calm him down.

-

seungcheol is a third of the way done with the song when soojung called him and told him directly that it wasn't going to work and that she'd prefer they break it off now rather than drag it on further.

he doesn't say anything, and just hangs up the phone.

later that day he downs five bottles of soju and rewrites the whole song before tearing his copy into pieces.

-

"so, what do you think about adding this piece here?" jihoon says, mumbling slightly the way he does when he's concentrating, and pointing toward a certain part of the song with his pencil.

seungcheol stretches, leans back in his chair. "yeah, i think it would work."

he glances at jihoon as the younger bends down to write something on the lyric sheet placed on the table.

his glance turns into a stare as he begins to notice the fine wisps of dark hair at the nape of his neck, the way his shirt seems a little too big for him, the collar hovering slightly above the back of his shoulders, how his fingers seem so deft and quick and intricate, like they were a work of art creating themselves.

before he can quickly turn away, jihoon glances up, and seungcheol sheepishly averts his gaze to the floor, pretending to study the shoelaces on his worn out New Balances.

"...wanna get coffee after this?"

seungcheol glances out the tiny window in the studio, out at the darkening sky. it looks like rain, and from the bruised purples and greys streaked with marbled clouds edging their way, he knows that the chances of them getting stranded in the 24 hour cafe are pretty high.

"sure," he says, shrugging and picking up his jacket. jihoon stands up too and throws on his hoodie and backpack, but not before throwing the lyrics and his pen into it.

"you should leave it," seungcheol says, "it'll only be for awhile."

jihoon makes no move to take out the lyrics, only walks out of the room and stops halfway down the corridor waiting for the elder, who closes the door behind him and follows suit.

-

they have just begun to order their drinks when it begins to pour.

it starts off small at first, something that both of them can rush through in time to not get totally drenched, but the words "caramel macchiato" have just left seungcheol's mouth, so all they can do is sit in the booth and wait out the rain.

"it's okay," jihoon says, pulling out his laptop and setting it on their chosen booth. there's only two workers at the counter, one to order drinks and one to make them, and about three other customers. the cafe has dark espresso walls and cappucino foam furniture with matte black metal legs, soft yellow lighting and tiny houseplants on each table. there are tall glass windows alternating from seat to seat that reach from ceiling to floor, and it's beside one of these rain-streaked windows that jihoon chooses to sit. 

"i brought my laptop out so we could finish it up, it's not fully charged but it should last us about three hours-"

"i don't really want to do the song now." seungcheol interrupts, and jihoon looks mildly startled before settling back into his cool, unfazed demeanour.

"sure, what do you wanna do?"

"let's talk. about ourselves. we barely know each other."

jihoon raises his eyebrows. "you once asked soonyoung for my dorm address so you could barge in during finals season and stock my fridge up with vegetables and fruits because you thought i couldn't take care of myself."

"that-that was a once-off," seungcheol blusters, taking a gulp of his hot coffee and trying not to yelp when it scalds his tongue.

"what do you want to know about me?" jihoon asks offhandedly, wisely choosing to blow on his americano before sipping it.

"anything. look, what's your favourite colour?"

jihoon contemplates. "i don't really know- maybe yellow?"

"wow, that's bold." seungcheol thinks out loud. "mine is probably red."  _dark red,_  he thinks,  _with warm undertones, like a wine spill over white sheets._

"that's bold too." jihoon says. he takes a bigger mouthful of his coffee as he draws circles on the glossy tabletop with his fingertips.

seungcheol doesn't know what else to say, so he blurts out the first question that comes to mind.

"so, are you dating anyone?"

jihoon freezes, but does so almost inconspicuously- he just seems to stiffen behind his cup and his eyes begin to dart around frantically.

"you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

jihoon sets his cup down.

"nah, it's okay. i actually tried it out with soonyoung, just to see how it would work out, but yeah- nothing really happened."

"oh, so- you're gay?" seungcheol asks, and maybe something in his voice makes jihoon look up sharply.

"yeah, is that a problem?" jihoon seems to be a little on edge today, maybe more than usual.

"what- no, of course not." 

jihoon visibly relaxes.

"good."

seungcheol can't help but agree.

-

about an hour passes, and seungcheol has learnt that jihoon started music since he was practically a toddler, that he once nearly hit the infamous kim mingyu with a guitar (on purpose), that he once produced a song for a pretty famous movie, that he plays the piano and guitar and sings and composes-

seungcheol doesn't really know what to do about this feeling inside his chest, one that feels like flowers are growing somewhere in his left ventricle.

jihoon looks directly at seungcheol. the cafe has quietened down now, only one other customer left, and one of the workers are in the back. the only sound that seungcheol can hear is the steady drumming of the rain on the paneled windows, mixed in with the thudding of his heartbeat in his ears.

"you've broken up with soojung, haven't you?"

his heart stops.

he looks away, hoping he's heard jihoon wrong, that he wouldn't press it further.

"i knew it."

there's no triumph in his voice, but an empty hollowness that seungcheol wants to fill up.

"how long have you known for?"

"the day after. i'm friends with soojung's brother and he mentioned it in passing."

seungcheol unconsciously wrings his hands, still not looking at jihoon.

"why- why didn't you just call it off? what's the use of writing more?" jihoon says, something in his voice like a thorn of hurt.

"i didn't want to waste your efforts."

seungcheol pauses.

"you could've told me that you'd known."

"i didn't want to. i was expecting you to tell me and when you didn't i thought you'd try to get her back with the song."

"you wanna know why i didn't stop?" seungcheol glances up at jihoon, who may or may not have tears in his eyes- damn this cafe's dim lighting.

"i wanted to spend time with you. i knew if we stopped we'd never talk again because this song was the only thing that we had to talk about, so i stayed, i continued, and yeah- i did think of leaving it. but every time- every fucking time-" seungcheol takes a deep breath.

"i would see you working on it so hard, and i would hold myself back. because i love- i love how you work so hard and how you enjoy the process, and i wanted that hard work and happiness to be because of me for a bit- even if it was only for awhile." he glances down again, not daring to meet jihoon's eyes, which are brimming over with emotions he can't really identify.

"why didn't you just tell me earlier?" jihoon says, and something in his voice is a bit choked up. seungcheol looks up and sees him angrily wiping at his tears falling like a broken string of pearls down the curve of his cheek. 

"i already said-"

"i don't mean that, idiot." jihoon snaps, but there's no bite in that bark. "why didn't you- i like you too, you dumbass, why couldn't you have mentioned it earlier-"

jihoon doesn't finish his sentence, because all of a sudden seungcheol is in front of him, wrapping him in a warm hug that, for once, he seems to really not repel.

"i'm sorry, jihoonie, i'm so sorry." seungcheol whispers. "i like you too, a lot."

"see how easy that was?" jihoon says, hiccuping on his tears. he looks so happy, trying to disguise it through a scowl, but the tears dripping down his face have no more correlation to the song.

"yeah, i do now." seungcheol says, stroking the top of jihoon's head as his tears gradually stop. "i really do."

-

they decide to run through the rain, because jihoon's bag is waterproof and it's already 1am.

they decide- or rather seungcheol decides to stop off at his place, because it's closer and look, we're both already soaked, do you really need to go all the way back?

seungcheol lets jihoon take a shower first, and after giving him one of his hoodies and some boxer shorts to change into, he dries off his own hair, glancing at jihoon's open bag on the floor, where he'd taken his laptop out and away from any risk of getting wet.

he doesn't really mean to look inside, but he does.

there, tucked beside his notebook, is a black foldable umbrella, clean and completely, 100% dry.

 

**Author's Note:**

> so i basically rushed this bc my dumbass decided to write directly on ao3 for this one- but i hope it's still up to par! thank you for reading and i hope you guys'll have something to say in the comments :)


End file.
